5 Things To Know: 'Siren' Actor Ian Verdun Wants To See More Women And People Of Color Leading Genre TV

Los Angeles native Ian Verdun has found the perfect role with Siren‘s Xander McClure.

Described as a “big-hearted and tough as nails” kind of guy, McClure is a fisherman in Bristol Cove who sees everything in the small village change when a mysterious girl appears.

Verdun also told ESSENCE that he’s a major fan of genre television and the fantastic world of sci-fi. Below get to know the actor ahead of his debut as Xander McClure.

1. Verdun’s role was originally written for a blue collar “portly Thor:” “One thing that I absolutely love is the fact that that perspective can be played by a person of color. It’s one of the things that, while I was doing the show and while I’m very thankful, the role was not written for a person of color and in the script, the original pilot, he’s basically like a portly Thor. He’s supposed to be a blonde dude and they ended up casting me.”

2. Verdun writes, directs, and produces in his downtime: “I’ve been doing [my own projects] well before Siren started. I have one project, Life’s a Drag, currently on YouTube, which is a pilot. I was actually in the process of pitching it when I was testing for Siren. I had literally pitched to networks for my show right before I booked it.”

3. A big fan of sci-fi, Verdun is working on his own series and hopes to cast women and people of color as leads: “I actually have one of my own worlds that I’m writing the pilot for right now. I’ve been developing it since I was about 12-years-old, so I’ve spent nearly 20 years creating this kind of genre world. I feel like now is the time and I’m finally ready to get it out there so that can be what I can present to the world an opening for people of color in genre television and female strong leads.”

4. The actor calls being a nerd a “badge of honor:” “I think everybody’s got a bit of nerd in them. Everybody loves fantasy, a little bit of escapism and mythology,” he says. “To call yourself a nerd or to think you’re nerding out, I kind of view it a little bit as a badge of honor…I’m a fan of inventive, creative, storytelling and pushing the boundaries of what it is to tell a story and being able to talk about the human experience in non human terms.”

5. Verdun hopes to use his platform to tell stories from perspectives that are rarely shared: “I really want to see how this experience can start to open up doors where I have more opportunity to really set the narrative. I have a lot of opinions and I have a lot of aspirational things that I would love to see happen in the industry to move this conversation of diversity and equity further ahead. I think a big part of that is creating narratives with new perspectives and offering new opportunities for different artists.”

Check out the special two-hour premiere of Siren on International Mermaid Day, March 29, at 8:00 p.m. ET on Freeform.